1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filling and casing system applicable to a filling and casing line for filling bottles or the like with liquid, powder or the like such as food, detergent, oil, etc. and placing the bottles in a case, and a capping machine and a container gripper device in that system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One example of a bottling system in the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 14. Briefly explaining the illustrated system, various kinds of instruments and a lot of operators therefor are necessitated by that system since an uncaser 3 for removing cleaned empty bottles 2 from a case 1, an aligning device 4 for carrying the taken-out bottles 2 and aligning the bottles 2 in one row, a bottling machine 5 for filling the aligned and carried-in bottles 2 with liquid, a capper 6 for capping the filled bottles 2, a case packer 7 for packing the bottles 2 in case 1, a case conveyor 8 for conveying empty cases discharged from the uncaser 3 to the case packer 7, and conveyors for connecting the respective instruments with one another, are employed.
In other words, along the flow of the bottles 2 are the uncaser 3 .fwdarw. the aligning device 4 .fwdarw. a conveyor 9 .fwdarw. the bottling machine 5 .fwdarw. the capper 6 .fwdarw. a conveyor 10 .fwdarw. the case packer 7, while with respect to the flow of the cases 1, the empty cases 1 discharged from the uncaser 3 must be conveyed by a long case conveyor 8 until the bottles 2 are packed in these cases 1 by the case packer 7. In addition, respective operators are always necessary for each of the instruments including the uncaser 3, the bottling machine 5, the capping 6, and the case packer 7 because the distances between the respective instruments are so long that it is impossible for only one operator to monitor and operate these instruments.
More particularly, in the heretofore known system, the respective operations are performed by the respective machines exclusively (for instance, the uncaser is exclusively used for taking bottles from a case, or the like), and the operations are performed independent of one another. For instance, the uncaser 3 operates continuously, the bottling machine 5 operates continuously, but the case packer 7 operates intermittently, and in order to synchronize these operations with each other, conveyors are essential between the respective machines.
While the uncaser 3 and the case packer 7 process a predetermined plurality of containers, such as bottles, at the same time, the bottling machine 5 processes the containers one by one. In order to feed the containers to the bottling machine 5, the aligning device 4 for aligning the containers in one row is required; and, in front of the case packer 7 another aligning device for realigning the containers in one row conveyed by the conveyor 10 into a plurality of rows is required.
In this way, the respective machines are connected via conveyors, and since there are considerable distances between the respective machines, it is necessary to provide persons for monitoring and operating the machines.
Furthermore, in the heretofore known system, if the size of the containers to be handled is changed, it is necessary to mount new devices capable of handling the containers. Hence, a number of devices must be prepared for different containers, and it takes a long time to exchange the devices.
In summary, the above-described type of filling and casing system in the prior art presents problems in that machines operating individually to perform respective operations are connected via conveyors and the flow of containers is regulated to that end; hence the productivity of the system is poor, a large space and many operators are necessary, and further it is impossible to immediately accommodate for a change in the containers.
In particular, the filling and casing system in the prior art presents a problem in that when processing containers such as bottles having different sizes, it is necessary to mount a container gripper adapted to the containers to be processed; hence the number of container gripers to be used is large, and also a lot of time is necessary for exchanging the container grippers. In addition, there is a problem in that a bottle aligning device is necessary, and in particular, when handling containers having eccentric container mouths, an aligning device is necessary downstream of a casing machine, because container grippers are matched with a pitch of containers arrayed in a case on the conveyor.